HFauto

Mission & Goals

To generate knowledge on Human Factors of automated driving towards safer road transportation.

Road transport is an essential part of society but the burden of traffic crashes, congestion, and pollution is enormous. Highly automated driving (HAD) has the potential to resolve these problems and major car makers foresee that HAD will be technically ready for commercialisation within one decade from now. However, before automated driving can be safely deployed on public roads we have to deal with imminent human factors questions, such as:

• How should human-machine-interfaces (HMI) be designed to support transitions between automated and manual control?
• How can the automation understand the driver’s state and intentions?
• What are the effects of HAD on accident risk and transport efficiency?

HFauto bridges the gap between engineers and psychologists through a multidisciplinary research and training programme. We combine engineering domains such as simulator hardware, traffic flow theory, control theory, and mathematical driver modelling with psychological domains such as human action and perception, cognitive modelling, vigilance, distraction, psychophysiology, and mode/situation awareness, to optimally address the interdisciplinary domain of human factors.

Through secondments in automotive industry, road safety institutes, and academia, the researchers gain transferable knowledge of human factors, technology, and legal and marketing aspects of HAD.